Peanut Butter White Chocolate "Life" of the Party Cookies

Peanut Butter White Chocolate "Life" of the Party Cookies


I just opened a bottle of wine and my wife just left for her Weight Watchers meeting (she hit 100lbs lost tonight; gratz Babe!). I haven't had anything to eat in 6 hours and I'm browsing Pinterest while listening to The Distillers. If you didn't know already, Empty Stomach + Wine + Pinterest + Good Music = I MUST MAKE SOMETHING IN THE KITCHEN time for me. I've been toying with the idea of Blue Moon Cupcakes with an Orange Cream Cheese frosting but sadly I am missing most of the ingredients for that experiment (I'll make them later, I promise). After rummaging around my pantry for a few minutes, I decide on cookies. I like finding a random component and building everything around it; today's idea is Life cereal. There were two directions I could have gone with these cookies: Whole Life cereal pieces OR Crushed/Blended Life cereal pieces. I may try the crushed version next time with some oatmeal and semi-sweet chocolate but this time I decided to go with the whole pieces. Because the cereal is so bulky, I needed something to hold it together so I grabbed the peanut butter. And that is how this recipe was born. It still has room for tweaks but I think it's a good start. Enjoy!

Az

P.S. The cookie dough turned out a little thick. Next time I think I'll add 1/8th of a cup of beer (Hefeweizen or an IPA) and maybe a touch more flour to keep the consistency. 

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Butter (1 Stick)
1 Egg
2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/3 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Pure Maple Syrup
1/2 Teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1/3 Cup Peanut Butter
1 1/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 Cup Life Cereal
1 Cup (4-6 oz) chopped White Baking Chocolate or White Chocolate Chips


Directions:


1.) Preheat  the oven to 350º.

If you decide to refrigerate your dough prior to baking, skip this step!

2.) Cream butter with sugars and peanut butter. (Don't know what it means to cream butter? Fear not! The folks over at Serious Eats have got us covered with an awesome slideshow tutorial.



Experienced bakers will notice that I did not cream the butter enough before moving on to step 3. Make sure that you mix it for at least 3 full minutes (4-5 would probably be better). My cookies weren't nearly as airy as I would have liked.






3.) Next we'll mix in the maple syrup, vanilla extract and the egg.

Normally I'd say to beat the mix it until it pales but the peanut butter is going to prevent that from happening. Just run the mixer on medium for like 2 minutes.

4.) In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda. Start your mixer on low and slowly add the dry mix to the dough a little bit at a time until smooth.


5.) Next we'll be adding the "goodies". Go ahead and pour in the Life cereal and White Chocolate. I used white baking chocolate, which made the cookies a little creamier but less sweet. Next time I make these I may try tweaking the recipe a bit and adding a little more flour, white chocolate chips and some beer for that extra "hop".

6.) Once your dough is all mixed, cover it with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for 1-3 hours. This will firm it up a bit and help the cookies not to spread out when baked. ...As a side note, I didn't do that with this batch as I was pressed for time but I only baked half of the cookies so far.

7.) Scoop the dough into balls and place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet (I used parchment paper on a cookie sheet). Press the dough down slightly to give the cookies an oblong shape.

8.) Bake for 8-14 minutes, depending on how soft you like the cookies. For some reason, the cookies never "browned" so you can't really use that as a guide on how long to leave them in.


9.) Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool on the sheet for 1 minute, then move them to a wire rack.






That's it! Let them finish cooling and enjoy :) As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions for future adaptations.